Saturday, December 6, 2008

I know times are tough, but if you can somehow scrape together enough money for a couple racks of lamb, you'll have yourselves a very merry holiday roast. Rack of lamb isn't cheap, but when compared with other special occasion items like prime rib, tenderloin, duck, goose, etc., it's about the same price, and you have almost no waste.

If you can swing buying local lamb, more power to you, but for most of us, trimmed rack of lamb will be coming from Australia or New Zealand. The good news is the meat is usually excellent quality, and very consistently sized.

This means you can achieve a nice medium-rare doneness relying mainly on time, and not feel. There is something terrifying to the average home cook when forced to poke meat to tell if it's done or not.

The recipe here is a classic fancy hotel presentation; the rack is roasted, topped with Dijon mustard and breadcrumb crust. Since the lamb is "Frenched," which means the fat between the rib bones is trimmed out, this is a very easy to crave roast, as you just cut between the bones and serve. Enjoy!

* Please help support free video recipes, and visit my new sponsor, MOZO Shoes. Find out why chefs (like me) are buzzing about their great shoes!

Thanks for teaching us how to make this dish I've only heard of. I would have been too scared to try something as fancy as this without having seen it prepared. But I'd have to cook it more, because I'm one of those dreaded "never eat pink meat" folks LOL

OK, John...we have tried both your "racks" of lamb and each one has been a great success with friends, family, notoriety and royaly! So what do we do? We take a bow and brag about you and your website, of cource. But truely, the Pistachio rack is "to die for" in our opinion, and does take the proverbial cake. Thank you, thank you. Merry Xmas. Any ideas as to the perfect accoutrement for these delicioso recipies?